You should count yourself lucky with your gas prices. Here in the UK it is currently $8 a gallon for unleaded.

Not to be too crass (only a little obnoxious), but aren't you able to drive across the whole of the UK for 1/4 tank?

Seems to me (admittedly, I'm not well traveled) that the distances you need to drive are only a fraction of what we "need" to drive here? I would think that our gas $ pain by percentage is equally bad, even at 1/2 the cost?

Not to be too crass (only a little obnoxious), but aren't you able to drive across the whole of the UK for 1/4 tank?

Seems to me (admittedly, I'm not well traveled) that the distances you need to drive are only a fraction of what we "need" to drive here? I would think that our gas $ pain by percentage is equally bad, even at 1/2 the cost?

Not that any of this makes $8 gas any easier to take, though.

Maybe you need to learn a little about the geography of the UK instead of showing your ignorance (not trying to be too obnoxious your understand).

A great majority of the UK gas price is due to taxes too, so that raises the price significantly.

If you look at it in a more pragmatic sense, petroleum is like a drug that EVERYONE wants/needs. So everyone who can want to drill for it, refine it, transport it, and sell it for a healthy profit. Because of that healthy profit, the government wants a piece of it, a LARGE piece of it. Just look at how so many countries "nationalize" their oil refineries! Nobody an ignore trillions of $$ of profit!

All because we the consumers need it/want it and can't live without it.

What are they going to do next? Charge us for soaking up the sun and converting it to electric power? You have to wonder if someone will think of that sometime down the road when Petroleum is no longer the major Energy provider we so demand.

Not to be too crass (only a little obnoxious), but aren't you able to drive across the whole of the UK for 1/4 tank?

Seems to me (admittedly, I'm not well traveled) that the distances you need to drive are only a fraction of what we "need" to drive here? I would think that our gas $ pain by percentage is equally bad, even at 1/2 the cost?

Not that any of this makes $8 gas any easier to take, though.

I've often wondered what the average yearly mileage of a typical European was and how that compares to the US.

England is part of the UK, which includes Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, which increases the size a fair bit. The distance from Lands End to John O'Groats is 850 miles, which is considerably more than the 330 miles from the top to the bottom of Alabama.

England is part of the UK, which includes Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, which increases the size a fair bit. The distance from Lands End to John O'Groats is 850 miles, which is considerably more than the 330 miles from the top to the bottom of Alabama.

I'm surprised we're about two weeks in the annual spring energy crisis and denial of reality hysteria and no one has circulated the "Don't buy any gas on such-and-such date and because that will show them ding dang oil companies the power of the consumers" email. Get with it people. I need the populist rhetoric for good laugh.

The distance from Lands End to John O'Groats is 850 miles, which is considerably more than the 330 miles from the top to the bottom of Alabama.

Ok so all in all the size of Kalifornia. But what is the typical mileage driven per year in the UK, the rest of Europe? I put 27,000 miles on my Fiesta last year. Probably not that typical but it is what it is.